Research Fellow (BILPA)

Fixed Term contract up to November 2025

Role Summary

The Birmingham Particle Physics group has a vacancy for a Research Fellow working on solid state detector R&D within the Birmingham Instrumentation Laboratory for Particle physics and Applications (BILPA). The BILPA laboratory is an established centre for the development of the next generation solid state detectors for future collider facilities and medical applications. Together with the high intensity irradiation line at the University of Birmingham MC40 cyclotron, it provides an excellent combination of facilities to support a growing, vibrant R&D programme. The successful applicant will play a leading role in the expansion of our strategic R&D programme providing a unique contribution to the development of full 4D tracking systems and solid-state detector technologies for extreme fluence environments.

The Particle Physics group currently has 11 academic staff, 19 post-doctoral researchers and engineers, 5 support staff and over 20 research students.  Our present activities include ATLAS and LHCb at the LHC, NA62 on the CERN SPS, Dark Matter searches with NEWS-G and Darkside and the DUNE future long-baseline neutrino experiment. We have a 200m² suite of clean room facilities for silicon detector R&D and construction and maintain a significant Tier 2 site on the UK GridPP contribution to LHC world-wide distributed computing.

The School of Physics and Astronomy is one of the largest in the UK, with a wide-ranging research portfolio, and is consistently highly ranked for excellence in research and teaching.  It takes in around 200 undergraduates per year and has over 100 academic and research staff, 120 graduate students and 35 technical support staff.

Person Specification

A PhD in Particle Physics and experience in the development of silicon detectors for HEP will be essential for this post. The applicant must enjoy independent research as well as working in a team and must be willing to travel and spend periods at CERN.

Essential criteria

• PhD in particle physics (or about to submit by time post is taken up)
• Extensive experience with testing techniques for the characterisation of silicon detectors in laboratory and test beam experiments
• Extensive programming experience in C++ and/or Python
• Good presentation/communication/interpersonal skills
• Ability to work to deadlines/schedule within a project
• High level analytical capability
• Willingness to travel for short periods within the UK and abroad.

Desirable criteria

• Experience developing ASIC and/or DAQ systems for High Energy Physics instrumentation
• Experience with hardware (i.e. FPGA) programming languages, i.e. Verilog or VHDL
• Experience in PCB design
• Familiarity with GEANT4, FLUKA, AllPix2, TCAD software

Potential applicants are encouraged to obtain further information about the post from:

Dr Laura Gonella                                                        Prof. Paul Newman                                    

Email: laura.gonella@cern.ch                                 p.r.newman@bham.ac.uk

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the Apply Online button above or visit our careers website.

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We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working

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